At Niki Jones Agency, we take pride in our commitment to using sustainable energy. So much so, in fact, that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized our use of renewable electricity. Since 2008, 87,483 kilowatt hours of green electricity have powered our agency’s computers! You can imagine our surprise, therefore, when we learned about the environmental impact of web hosting. That’s right: our increasingly digital world still has a major impact on our climate. Fortunately, you can decrease your business’s carbon footprint with green web hosting.
If web hosting is a new topic for you, don’t worry! Click here to learn more about web hosting and how Niki Jones Agency can help.
Web Hosting & Carbon Emissions
Currently, the I.T. industry is responsible for 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. That’s because data centers use a lot of energy to properly store servers in a cool, climate-controlled environment. Although many of world’s leading tech companies have pivoted towards powering data centers with renewable energy, web hosting is still catching up. (Click here to read about Google’s plan to go carbon-emission free.) Of course, web hosting providers often share their data centers with other companies unlike Google, Apple, and other tech giants.
Nevertheless, many providers are making the shift towards green web hosting. To do so, they’re purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (REC). An REC certifies that a company has offset the amount of conventional energy consumed (for example, at a data center) by generating an equal amount of clean or renewable energy. This neutralizes their carbon footprint by introducing clean energy back into the grid.
Measure Your Digital Carbon Footprint
With all this information, you may be wondering how energy-efficient your website is. (Click here to find out your website’s environmental impact.) Although there are several factors, the answer is partly based on your web hosting. You can improve your digital carbon footprint by selecting a web hosting provider that is committed to purchasing RECs. Or, you can choose to host your website on a cloud-based server. Cloud-based hosting allows you to scale your hosting plan to fit your needs, which means you have more control over the resources your website uses.
Questions about web hosting? We’ve got you covered! Call us today at 845-856-1266 and ask to speak to Niki or Louis. We will get you set up with a new hosting provider or plan, based on your needs. And if you want to improve your digital carbon footprint, we can recommend eco-friendly hosting providers.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.